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Tai peoples

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Also known as Shans, Laos

ethnic group

Wikidata facts

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topic's main category
Category:Tai peoples
Commons category
Tai peoples
described by source
The Nuttall Encyclopædia
language used
Tai
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~36 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Tai peoples are the populations who speak (or formerly spoke) the Tai languages. There are a total of about 93 million people of Tai ancestry worldwide, with the largest ethnic groups being Dai, Thai, Isan, Lao, Shan, Ahom, Zhuang, Tày, Nùng, Táy, and some Northern Thai peoples.

The Tai are scattered through much of South China and Mainland Southeast Asia, with some (e.g. Tai Ahom, Tai Khamti, Tai Phake, Tai Aiton) inhabiting parts of Northeast India. Tai peoples are both culturally and genetically very similar and therefore primarily identified through their language.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tai peoples” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.